Missoulian
“What a way to end the old year and start the new one.”
That’s the entire text of the email Homer forwarded to me last Friday afternoon, the day before New Year’s Eve. He had just received this message from his dear old friend Bunny, a rancher down on the Tongue River in the far southeastern corner of this sprawling state.
Bunny Hayes, gruff old rancher that he is, is a master of understatement.
There was not even an exclamation point at the end of the note, but the brief news release attached to the email was exclamation point enough for Homer and me. The story announced a rare victory in the decades-long battle by ranchers and environmental groups to protect a place and a way of life that are threatened by energy development. The headline read simply, “Court hands setback to SE Montana coal railroad,” and to most who read the article, it probably did not rise to the level of earth-shattering news.
However, for those who know the history of the long battle over coal, and now coal-bed methane development in Montana, it was big news indeed that a federal court determined the analysis of the potential environmental consequences of building a railroad up the Tongue River Valley had fallen far short of the required standards.
For those of you who have not ranged far and wide across Montana, the Tongue River country is a piece of the old west that must be seen and felt to be appreciated. A drive along its length on a fine spring day is enough to put the lie to any notions of eastern Montana as an arid wasteland. Its winding course past 100-year-old ranches, through cottonwood bottoms and lush hay lands, along the eastern edge of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, and below the ponderosa pine-studded Tongue River Breaks takes visitors back to another time.
The Tongue River Railroad has been on corporate drawing boards for more than 30 years. It was originally conceived as a way to move coal from a proposed mine near Birney, on the Tongue River south of Ashland, to connect with the main east-west line at Miles City, where the coal would then be moved primarily to potential power plant customers in the upper Midwest. Despite vocal environmental concerns, and years of effort by many local ranchers and the Northern Plains Resource Council to have those concerns addressed, the railroad backers received a permit to proceed with the project from the Interstate Commerce Commission.
That mine near Birney was never built, and neither was the railroad. Meanwhile, the ICC was replaced by a new agency, the Surface Transportation Board. Somehow, that permit has stayed in force through several iterations of a plan to move coal from the region. Now, with the possibility looming of development of the coal tracts in the Otter Creek area south of Ashland, the Tongue River Railroad is once again on the front burner. These days, now that coal-fired power plants are not exactly popping up everywhere in the United States due to serious environmental concerns, including climate change, the potential market for the coal is now global in reach, particularly to Asia.
Though the quiet ranches along the Tongue River haven’t changed much since the first hint, way back in the 1960s and ’70s, that coal development was coming, other things worth noting have changed. Most alarming for local ranchers who are dependent upon the waters of the Tongue River for the viability of their ranches is the threat of impacts to that precious water from large-scale development of coal-bed methane. This is a huge concern for people like Bunny and all the others who for most of their adult lives have trooped back and forth to Helena or the site of whatever next meeting was scheduled to address their issues related to energy development.
One of the findings of the federal court in the recent decision was that any analysis of the environmental impacts of the Tongue River Railroad must take into account the cumulative impacts of its own proposal in concert with the effects of the projected coal-bed methane development in the region in the years to come.
That seems like common sense to me. But for those who have been on the battle lines demanding accountability and responsible development of those energy resources for decades, it is a huge victory. And it is a victory for all who cherish the natural beauty and abundant natural values of this state, and the way of life that we are so proud of here.
This does not mean that no railroad will be built. Everyone involved knows that. But it does assure that a much closer examination will be made into what the real effects of energy development are going to be.
And that, by almost any measure, is a good way to end the old year and start the new one.
Greg Tollefson is a freelance Missoula writer whose column appears each week in Outdoors. He can be reached atgtollefson@bresnan.net.
